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<title>Happily Ever After by stateofintegrity</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24115144">Happily Ever After</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/stateofintegrity/pseuds/stateofintegrity'>stateofintegrity</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>MASH (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:40:25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>482</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24115144</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/stateofintegrity/pseuds/stateofintegrity</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Just a sweet tableau.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Maxwell Klinger/Charles Emerson Winchester III</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Happily Ever After</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Hawkeye found the best friend life would ever gift him standing outside of their tent, hand on a framing pole, looking inside. </p><p>“What are you watching?”</p><p>“Shhh.” He looked to make sure Hawk’s voice hadn’t destroyed the unique tableau. When he saw that all was well, he said, “The thing that’s going to completely change how I feel about Winchester, I think.”</p><p>Hawkeye’s curiosity woke up and cat-stretched. He got in close to BJ so he could see, too. “What are they doing?”</p><p>“Winchester’s reading. Klinger… I think Klinger has found the one place he can feel completely safe in all of Asia.” </p><p>Inside the tent, the 4077th’s Corporal was curled up on the chest of the company’s thoracic surgeon, dark head rising and falling as Charles breathed. Winchester held a book in one hand and was reading aloud; Hunnicutt shook his head in a kind of soft wonder. He knew that all Klinger could hear and feel in that moment was Charles, and his body language said that it was heaven. </p><p>“I never pegged Klinger for much of a reader.”</p><p>“Charles has been working through the classics with him. He probably wouldn’t make it through on his own, but he likes listening to Charles. Here, look. This is my favorite part.”</p><p>“You know the book?”</p><p>“No. Watch when Winchester turns the page.” The aristocrat’s long fingered hand swept the page aside. As it did so, it oh-so tenderly swept over Klinger’s hair, fingers slipping through dark strands as if through fast-flowing water before returning to its original position. </p><p>“He does that…”</p><p>“Every single time,” BJ confirmed. </p><p>Hawkeye’s hand went to his own locks, echoing the motion at least partly out of jealousy. “Good for Klinger.” </p><p>“Right? Much as it goes against my instinct not to needle Charles, I don’t want to interrupt them. Come to the O club with me?” </p><p>Hawk read the wistfulness on his face, knew he was thinking of holding his wife with her head against his chest, of reading to his daughter. It was a small tribute and a smaller comfort, but the least he could do was to listen to these memories over drinks. As they turned away, Pierce said quietly, “Good for you, Charles. Take good care of him, okay?” </p><p>But he wasn’t worried. He’d seen the incredible gentleness in that touch, the openness of Winchester’s face. He wondered, happy for these two souls thrown together by war, how Boston would compare, in Klinger’s mind, to Toledo. He knew the Corporal would get to find out; if Charles was holding him like that now, he was never going to let him go. </p><p>He knew it was a line for fairytales rather than the literature Charles was bringing to life in his polished accented voice, but he tried it out anyway. “And they lived happily ever after.” Everything in him hoped it would come true. </p><p> </p><p>End! </p><p> </p>
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